Re: Problems Configuring X w/ GForce 2

["Thomas J. Hamman" <hawk3@eagnet.com>]

On Mon, Apr 23, 2001 at 06:50:04AM -0700, John and Kristy Woodill wrote:
> I have just bought a GForce 2 graphics card and now i can't seem to
> get x to configure and load correctly.  I just get a black and white
> screen all scrambled up.  I have a Riva TNT 2 before and had zero
> problems with that.  This is one of the best graphics cards out and i
> would think that there would be some way configuring it correctly.
> Thanks to those who respond.

Well, I just installed a new Geforce2 MX a couple days ago and had no
problems, so I'll tell you what I did.

This is using unstable and already having X 4 installed.  If you don't
have X 4 installed, you should probably upgrade to it; and if you're not
using unstable, these instructions may not help you (in which case I
recommend following the decent instructions on nvidia's website).

It would help you if you would describe your system (which version of
Debian you're using, which version of X, what you tried to do to set up
the card, etc.)  I'll go ahead and post what I did anyway in case it
benefits anyone.

First, prereqs:
Make sure you have the kernel-package package installed, along with the
source for your kernel (the appropriate kernel-headers package may work;
I don't know), and the usual stuff needed to compile stuff (like gcc,
dev versions of typical libraries, etc.).

Anyway, once you're ready:

1. Assuming you're running X 4, run "dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xfree86"
and choose "nv" for the video card driver.  Start X and make sure it
works (you'll have 2D but no 3D hardware acceleration).

2. apt-get install nvidia-kernel-src nvidia-glx-src

3. Switch to the directory with your kernel source or headers (hopefully
this will work with just kernel-headers; I haven't tried it since I
compile my own kernels) and run make-kpkg modules_image

4. You now have a package with the kernel module in the directory above
the dir with your kernel source; "cd.." and install it with dpkg -i

5. cd to /usr/src/nvidia-glx-# (where # is a version number like
0.9.769) and type "dpkg-buildpackage -us -uc"

6. Again, you'll have a built package in the parent directory, so cd..
and dpkg -i it.

7. Edit /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 and:
    In the "Module" section Comment out these two lines:
        Load "dri"
        Load "GLcore"
    In the "Device" section change
        Driver "nv"
    to..
        Driver "nvidia"

Restart X and pray. :)  I'm in a rush so apologize for any mistakes,
I'll check over what I said later.

-- 
Tom
"What lies behind us and what lies before us are tiny matters compared
to what lies within us."
        -Oliver Wendell Holmes